Tanzania - Poverty and wealth

Although a small segment of Tanzanians with secure access to employment
in the public and business sectors enjoy a relatively high standard of
living, the vast majority of Tanzanians live in poverty. Indeed, the
United Nations Development Programme
's (UNDP) human development index (HDI) listings, which arranges
countries according to their overall level of human development, ranks
Tanzania 156th out of a total of 174 nations. The HDI, a composite index
(one that assesses more than one variable) that measures life expectancy
at birth, adult literacy rate, school enrollment ratio, and
GDP per capita
, is indicative of a country's general social and economic
well-being. As such, Tanzania's HDI ranking demonstrates that the
country is one of the poorest and least developed in the world.

Under the socialist policies of Julius Nyerere, the Tanzanian government
focused heavily on achieving social
equity
through the development of a strong health and education sector.
Inequality in the early years of Ujamaa was mainly the result of the
colonial legacy in which some peasants were connected to the cash crop
export economy while others were not. Those that lived in areas
favorable for cash crop production enjoyed a slightly higher standard of
living than their subsistence peasant

GDP per Capita (US$)

Country

1975

1980

1985

1990

1998

Tanzania

N/A

N/A

N/A

175

173

United States

19,364

21,529

23,200

25,363

29,683

Dem. Rep. of Congo

392

313

293

247

127

Kenya

301

337

320

355

334

SOURCE:
United Nations.
Human Development Report 2000; Trends in human development and
per capita income.

Distribution of Income or Consumption by Percentage Share:
Tanzania

Lowest 10%

2.8

Lowest 20%

6.8

Second 20%

11.0

Third 20%

15.1

Fourth 20%

21.6

Highest 20%

45.5

Highest 10%

30.1

Survey year: 1993

Note: This information refers to expenditure shares by percentiles
of the population and is ranked by per capita expenditure.

SOURCE:
2000 World Development Indicators
[CD-ROM].

counterparts. Though Nyerere's social policies were generous,
they were unsustainable in a context of economic crisis and negligible
growth. Moreover, many critics, such as Enos S. Bukuku, the author of
The Tanzanian Economy: Income Distribution and Economic Growth,
argue that Nyerere's development policies promoted the modern,
nascent industrial sector, at the expense of agriculture. The result was
actually increased poverty in the countryside, and the creation of a few
highly skilled and highly paid jobs associated with the parastatals and
policies of import substitution industrialization.

Today, the cleavage (division; in this case economic) between the
general peasantry and those with higher-paying jobs in the urban centers
persists, though this type of inequality is characteristic of most
countries that are still in the throes of the development process.
According to the CIA
World Factbook
, the poorest 10 percent of the Tanzanian population consume a marginal
2.9 percent of total national consumption, while the richest 10 percent
consume 30.2 percent. In 1998, the GNP per capita in Tanzania was
estimated at a paltry US$220, whereas the GNP per capita in the United
States was US$29,240 in the same year.

Social policy in Tanzania is currently guided by the so-called
"Vision 2025," a comprehensive framework emphasizing 7
priority areas linked to overall poverty reduction. In 2000-01, the
Tanzanian government allocated its budget amid these 7 priority areas as
follows: education (23.2 percent), health (8.4 percent), roads (6.4
percent), agriculture (1.0 percent), judiciary (1.0 percent), water (0.6
percent), and HIV/AIDS (0.6 percent). While the government's
coherent strategy is a welcomed development, the IMF notes that it needs
work in some areas, including education, promotion of agricultural/rural
development, gender strategies, and a more comprehensive approach to
HIV/AIDS and the environment.

The vast majority of Tanzanians spend their meager incomes on the basic
necessities of life, such as food, rent, clothing, fuel, and
transportation. Very little is spent on entertainment and recreation,
which are considered luxuries for those that live in considerable
poverty. To make matters worse, in the past 10 years the increase in the
GNP per capita has been grossly outweighed by mounting
inflation
, which means that Tanzanians are having an increasingly difficult time
purchasing the commodities essential for human existence. The UNDP
estimates that the annual growth rate in GNP per capita between 1990 to
1998 was 0.4 percent, while the average annual rate of inflation during
the same period was 24.3 percent.

User Contributions:

It is true what u have suggested about the poverty in our country.But once we look on the main causes of that poverty it is better also to say some thing about the effects of colonialism in the contribution of this poverty,for example the excess exploitation they done during their rule,it made us to face many difficulties to overcome this foolish poverty.

Reasons as to why Tanzanians are poor could best explained by Tanzanians themselves rather than outsiders like UNDP, IMF, WB and others. There intrinsic factors that lay beneath the foundation on which our country was found and more recently contemporary factors related to Governance, accountability and rule of law.

Unfortunately most donors, bilateral and multilateral organizations don't want to dig deep down but they have been using superficially perceived knowledge on the causes of poverty to address what they think is the root cause of this plight.

The effort that made by our founding fathers to bring our country thus far have now been eroded by greedy leaders of our country due to poor governance, lack of accountability and politics of protectionism. Its very difficult in Tanzania today to hold a leader who have squandered the resources of this country accountable than it was over the last 20 years during Julius Nyerere era.

The vast of natural resources meant for all Tanzanians are currently being plundering by handful of those entrusted to the wealth of this beautiful nation and no one is bold or clean enough to even condemn them publicly. The speed or rate at which our natural resources and national heritage is being plundered by our leaders is almost the same at which poverty is accelerating.

World now is changing with the people are going blind. Economy of any country is under the leaders of the country. The slogan says, "be the change of changes that you want" would help people recover world's underdeveloping. Do we need Corruptive leaders? What is your action to Them?

Tanzania is poor because leaders they fail to control the economic structure. They fail to make good alternative on how to reduce importation of goods and cervices. The government have to speed up the production of goods which we import them at high cost like food products(cooking oil)and other energy. Also because agriculture is best production especially in developing country like Tanzania, the Government have to credit farmers and to find good market for them so that to make them able to produce at low cost at the same time they get more profits. Then tanzania is poor because we tried much to formulate good policy but we fail to implement them for example KILIMO KWANZA, this is politician policy its there for winning the election only.

Reform your minds on economic aid! forget it! It helped no one but the donors! Start being independent. Establish policies that are pro-development not pro-poor!Then be willing to pay some sacrifice. No one developed by sitting on a mat!